Sanitary napkin holding means



Get. 26, 194. E. CARPENTER SANITARY NAPKIN HOLDING MEANS Filed Dec. 19, 1945 Patented Oct. 26, 1948 NETE STATS SANITARY NAPKIN HOLDING MEANS Edith Carpenter; Chicago, Ill. Application December 19, 1945 Serial No, 635; 9211' 1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to improvements in sanitary napkin holding devices and more particularly to devices and means for supporting catamenial bandages or sanitary napkins on the body of the wearer and particularly to such devices for use in conjunction with a girdle, corset or other foundation garment for feminine wear whereby a napkin can be comfortably and adequately held in place whenever necessary.

Heretofore catamenial bandages, or sanitary napkins, have been held in position by means of a belt which encircles the wearers waist, having support members or tabs depending therefrom. These belts proved to be conspicuous, uncomfortable and the support members tended to bunch and roll. It was also determined that such belt type holder restricted movement and caused pressure on the pelvic organs of the wearer. It was to overcome these and other obvious disadvantages that the present invention was conceived.

The main objects of this invention are to pro vide a novel, simple and economical sanitarynapkin-holding means; to provide a device of this character which gives the wearer perfect freedom of motion without binding and with elimination of pressure on the pelvic organs; to provide a napkin-holding device which will obviate the discomfort and the often deleterious effects arising from the use of belts which encircle the wearers waist; to provide a device of this character which will provide greater flexibility of movement of the napkin relative to the supporting means whereby friction and pulling are minimized and greater comfort is obtained under all conditions of the wearers body position or movements; to provide a holding means of the character that is inconspicuous and which will minimize discomforting bunching and rolling of the attaching member when in use; to provide such a device which will be comfortable to wear and will be selfadjusting in its. applicationtothe user and in the latters movements; to provide such a device for the holding of such a napkin in-place by means which may be secured to a garment not provided especially for this purpose, as for example a foundation garment or one which does not shift relatively to the body like a foundation garment or corset, corselet or girdle; and to provide a sanitary napkin holder in which the attaching'means will be free to shift laterally but which will recenter themselves in accordance with the movements of the users body.

An illustrative embodiment of this invention is shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a front elevational view of the invention in position on a wearer, part of the atj taching element and the-supportingelerrientbeina' Fig. 4 is a perspective viewer my invention," showing the two supportingelements secured to fragments of a garment anda sanitarynapkin' attached to the attaching members.

Fig. 5 is a front elevational view or a modified form of the attaching members.

Fig. 6 is a cross-sectional' view' taken on line Referring in detail to the drawings, the supelastic joined to form a substantial V by'mitering and sewing together the connecting ends in abutting relationship, as indicated by the numeral in Fig. 1. Each supporting elementis thus flat" throughout and is substantiallyreinforced at the" apex of the V by means'of the-connecting stitcm ing at the miteredjoint;

To the free ends of the'a'rms- 2 and Sam at tached extending securing or fasteningtabs 5-6 constructed of'any suitable material, such as tape. The tabs to be integrally secured to the garmentin the position shown in the drawings-byany-suitable means; such as'by sewing or stitching-2 The removable napkin-attaching" hangers or connecting members, comprise aflat strap"! made of any suitable material suchas elastic, having a napkin-securing means 8 and 9' such as pads or tabsintegrally secured oneto each tree end of the strap 1. The fiat strip 1 isfold'edin half, as;

shown, to provide a pair of depending straps which are joined together and heldin this post-'- tion by sewing a V-shaped seam Ill, apex pointing downwardly, adjacent the fold. The V-shaped seam or crotch I0 is sewed soas to conformtothe \r-shaped angle of the supporting members;

whereby both v s have complementary-angles;

In. use the supportingelements I are secured substantiallyto the inside of a foundation garment, one in the front central portion thereof (see Fig: I and' one inthe' rearcentra-l portion thereof by anchoring the tabs 56 to the gar ment; as aforesaid. The supportingelements-2 are attached atspacedlocations circumferentially' of and to the garment and on a line just below the normal location of the wearers navel with the mine a -a or apex of the V centered with respect to the wear ers body and pointing downwardly. The napkinattaching member 1 is then looped over the supporting element I, so that the free ends of the attaching members will depend from the apex of the V-shaped supporting elements with the V formed by the stitching I riding in the V formed by mitering the arms 2-3 together. A sanitary napkin (is 'securedto the pads s and 9 in the usual manner, such as by safety pins H.

Since the V-shaped seam ll] of the attaching member will rest Within the V formed by the arms 2-3 of the supporting element I, the attaching member 1 will normally assume a centralized position as shown in the drawings. The positioning of the V-shaped seam I0 within the V-shaped supporting elements- 2-3 allows the flat strap 1 to swing and slide, on the arms of the supporting element, in harmony with the movements .of the wearers body, but when the wearer s;.body assumes a normal erect position, the V -shaped seam I 0 of the flat strap 7 will automatically slidelaterally and center itself at the mitered .joint of, the supporting element 1, thereby assuring complete comfort to the wearer.

The mitered joint at the apexes of the V s being reinforced by the stitching, substantially elimihates the curling or rolling over of the supporting element under thedownwward pulling action of the depending members.

This V form of the supporting elements not only-allows greater freedom of body movement without discomfort but also prevents any such rolling over or curling of the supporting elements as would cause discomfort to the wearer, due to being positioned tightly against the Wearers body, and as would cause conspicuous bulging beneath the wearerjs clothes. 7

As will be apparent from the nature of this invention; the device is primarily adapted foruse with a suitable foundation garment, such as a corset, girdle or the like, having sumcient body to provide a stable base upon which to attach the V.-shaped supporting elements and to prevent stretching or tearing of the foundation garment. Thus the foundation garment becomes the primary supporting member. It should be understood, however, that the present invention is not the combination of. a napkin support with a foundation, garment, but rather resides in the napkin-attaching means per se and particularly in-thev shaped element thereof and in the supporting means and the V-shaped seam thereof.

In the modified form of my invention, as shown in Figs; and 6, the supporting elements l2 i-3 are. constructed exactly as heretofore described with reference to the preferred embodiment. The napkin attaching members differ slightly from the preferred embodiment of my invention in that the flat strap l4, when doubled over upon itself, is merely stitched adjacent the fold as at 15 to reinforce the upper end of the strap. .14 and form a definite means to retain the strapwillin folded position. The stitching or sewing I 5 also provides a means whereby the looped strap l4 may readily shift on the upper edges of the diagonal arms l2- l3 when occasion arises andautomatically be self-centered again when the persons body assumes the normal erect position-g In use the supporting elements are secured to the foundation-garmentbyfastening the free ends of the legs of the V thereto and are positioned just below the normal location of the wearers navel with the apex of the V centered with respect to the wearer's body and pointing downwardly. The napkin attaching members are simply fiat straps of such length that when folded double each will reach the respective fastening tabs or ends of the napkin, and each end of each attaching member is preferably provided with a fastening pad. These attaching members are hung freely from the respective V supporting elements by looping each attaching member over its V support so that the free ends of the attaching member will depend from the apex of the V. The ends or fastening tabs of the napkin are then secured to the attaching pads in the usual manner.

The V-shaped supporting elements are preferably made from elastic tape resilient in the direction of its length. Such material, because of its stiffness provides an upper edge along which the depending attaching members can readily slide laterally to permit freedom of lateral body bending of the wearer without pulling or displacement of the napkin; and because such material has lengthwise elasticity forward bending or sitting posture of the wearers body is permitted without forward and backward sawing movement of the napkin.

The V construction of the supporting elements also provides for automatic or self-centering of the depending attaching members when the wearers body assumes a normal erect position.

It is to be understood that some of the details set forth may be altered or omitted without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined by the following claim.

I claim:

In a device of the class described, a napkinholding means comprising two elastic supporting elements disposed substantially flat against the inner surface of a primary supporting member for body wear and located respectively one at the front and one at the rear of the supporting member, means on the free ends of said element for fastening each element to the supporting member, each element having the upper edge portions thereof converging downwardly from the free ends thereof to form a V, a depending elastic hanger suspended centrally from each of said supporting elements having a V-shaped seam in its upper end, the angles thereof being complementary to the angles of the V of said supporting element whereby said hanger will readily seat in said V of the supporting element and be slidable laterally on the upper edge thereof, and means on the free ends of said hangers to which the ends of a sanitary napkin may be attached.

EDITH CARPENTER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 675,748 Margoris June 4, 1901 896,042 Post Aug. 11, 1908 987,900 McKinney Mar. 28, 1911 2,030,306 Lain Feb. 11, 1936 2,136,250 Peck Nov. 8, 1938 

